The Immortal Hybrid
by Dark Naruto Senju
Summary: Summary inside
1. Welcome to Forks

Summary: The Naruto Uzumaki had many scerets but when a human girl gets the attention of a vampire. Things get out hand quickly for Forks. Can he save the town and keep their secret from coming to light or watch the town become a bloodbath.

Naruto x Twilight x Underword

\--Story Starts--

Naruto's POV

Forks, Washington, a small town in the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington state. That will be my new home away from home. After living in London for so long I grew weary of the danger I put my family in nearly six centuries ago.

My name is Naruto Uzumaki and it was 1207 a few decades and the first werewolf hybrid was born and the second type of Hybrid next to me. I was just a nearly a year from my frist millennium of life when Lucian was born. I knew from the moment Viktor spared his life that I just gained a friend and brother.

As the years passed, Lucian grew and possed the strength and focus that the ones before him did not. Victor would used Lucian's infectious blood to his benefit. Taking advantage of the child's thirst, pity it against him as he was forced to feed on humans, Victor slaves.

Instead, he created a new race of immortals. Lycans. Werewolf, but also human. Unlike the others, this new breed could be harness. Inslaves to guard them in the day light hours to their masters. Or so Victor thought, so long very ago.

It was in 1402; two centuries later that I made the choice that put those I care about in danger of Viktor. Now six centuries later I made the choice to leave them for my new home.

Bella P.O.V.

My mother drove me to the airport with the windows rolled down. It was seventy-five degrees in Phoenix, the sky a perfect, cloudless blue. I was wearing my favorite shirt-sleeveless, white eyelet lace; I was wearing it as a farewell gesture. My carry-on item was a parka.

In the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, a small town named Forks exists under a near-constant cover of clouds. It rains on this inconsequential town more than any other place in the United Sates of America. It was from this town and its gloomy, omnipresent shade that my mother escaped with me when I was only a few months old. It was this town that I'd been compelled to spend a month every summer until I was fourteen. That was the year I finally put my foot down; these past three summers, my dad Charlie, vacationed with me in California for two weeks instead.

It was to Forks that I now exiled myself - an action that I took with great horror. I detested Forks. I loved Phoenix. I loved the sun and it's blistering heat. I loved the vigorous, sprawling city. "Bella," my mom said to me - the last of a thousand times - before I got on the plane. "You don't have to do this."

My mom looks like me, except with short hair and laugh lines. I felt a spasm of panic as I stared at her wide, childlike eyes. How could I leave my loving, erratic, harebrained mother to fend for herself? Of course she had Phil now, so the bills would probably get paid, there would be food in the refrigerator, gas in her car and someone to call when she got lost, but still….

"Iwantto go," I lied. I'd always been a bad liar, but I'd been saying this lie so frequently lately that it sounded almost convincing now. "Tell Charlie I said hi." "I will." "I'll see you soon," she insisted. "You can come home whenever you want - I'll come right back as soon as you need me." But I could see the sacrifice in her eyes behind the promise. "Don't worry about me," I urged. "It'll be great. I love you, Mom."

She hugged me tightly for a minute, and then I got on the plane, and she was gone. It was a four-hour flight from Phoenix to Seattle, another hour in a small plane up to Port Angeles and then an hour drive back down to Forks. Flying doesn't bother me; the hour in the car with Charlie, though, I was a little worried about.

Charlie had been fairly nice about the whole thing. He seemed genuinely pleased that I was coming to live with him for the first time with any degree of permanence. He'd already gotten me registered for high school and was going to help me get a car.

But it was sure to be awkward with Charlie. Neither of us was what anyone would call verbose, and I didn't know what there was to say regardless. I knew he was more than a little confused by my decision like my mother before me, I hadn't made a secret of my distaste for Forks. When I landed in Port Angeles, it was raining. I didn't see it as an omen - just unavoidable. I'd already said my goodbyes to the sun.

Charlie was waiting for me with the cruiser. This I was expecting, too. Charlie is Police Chief Swan to the good people of Forks. My primary motivation behind buying a car, despite the scarcity of my funds, was that I refused to be driven around town in a car with red and blue lights on top.

Nothing slows down traffic like a cop. Charlie gave me an awkward, one-armed hug when I stumbled my way off the plane. "It's good to see you, Bells," he said, smiling as he automatically caught and steadied me. "You haven't changed much. How's Renée?" "Mom's fine. It's good to see you, too, Dad." I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face.

I had only a few bags. Most of my Arizona clothes were too permeable for Washington. My mom and I had pooled our resources to supplement my winter wardrobe, but it was still scanty. It all fit easily into the trunk of the cruiser.

"I found a good car for you, really cheap," he announced when we were strapped in. "What kind of car?" I was suspicious of the way he said "good car for you"as opposed to just "good car." "Well, it's a truck actually, a Chevy." "Where did you find it?" "Do you remember Billy Black down at La Push?" La Push is the tiny Indian reservation on the coast. "No.""He used to go fishing with us during the summer," Charlie prompted.

That would explain why I didn't remember him. I do a good job of blocking painful, unnecessary things from my memory. "He's in a wheelchair now," Charlie continued when I didn't respond, "so he can't drive anymore, and he offered to sell me his truck cheap." "What year is it?" I could see from his change of expression that this was the question he was hoping I wouldn't ask.

"Well, Billy's done a lot of work on the engine - it's only a few years old, really." I hoped he didn't think so little of me as to believe I would give up that easily. "When did he buy it?" "He bought it in 1984, I think." "Did he buy it new?" "Well, no. I think it was new in the early sixties — or late fifties at the earliest," he admitted sheepishly. "Ch - Dad, I don't really know anything about cars. I wouldn't be able to fix it if anything went wrong, and I couldn't afford a mechanic…" "Really, Bella, the thing runs great. They don't build them like that anymore."

The thing, I thought to myself… it had possibilities as a nickname, at the very least. "How cheap is cheap?" After all, that was the part I couldn't compromise on. "Well, honey, I kind of already bought it for you. As a homecoming gift." Charlie peeked sideways at me with a hopeful expression. Wow. Free. "You didn't need to do that, Dad. I was going to buy myself a car." "I don't mind. I want you to be happy here." He was looking ahead at the road when he said this. Charlie wasn't comfortable with expressing his emotions out loud. I inherited that from him. So I was looking straight ahead as I responded.

"That's really nice, Dad. Thanks. I really appreciate it." No need to add that my being happy in Forks is an impossibility. He didn't need to suffer along with me. And I never looked a free truck in the mouth - or engine. "Well, now, you're welcome," he mumbled, embarrassed by my thanks. We exchanged a few more comments on the weather, which was wet, and that was pretty much it for conversation. We stared out the windows in silence.

It was beautiful, of course; I couldn't deny that. Everything was green: the trees, their trunks covered with moss, their branches hanging with a canopy of it, the ground covered with ferns. Even the air filtered down greenly through the leaves.

It was too green — an alien planet.

Eventually we made it to Charlie's. He still lived in the small, two-bedroom house that he'd bought with my mother in the early days of their marriage. Those were the only kind of days their marriage had - the early ones.

There, parked on the street in front of the house that never changed, was my new - well, new to me - truck. It was a faded red color, with big, rounded fenders and a bulbous cab. To my intense surprise, I loved it.

I didn't know if it would run, but I could see myself in it. Plus, it was one of those solid iron affairs that never gets damaged — the kind you see at the scene of an accident, paint unscratched, surrounded by the pieces of the foreign car it had destroyed.

"Wow, Dad, I love it! Thanks!" Now my horrific day tomorrow would be just that much less dreadful. I wouldn't be faced with the choice of either walking two miles in the rain to school or accepting a ride in the Chief's cruiser.

"I'm glad you like it," Charlie said gruffly, embarrassed again.

It took only one trip to get all my stuff upstairs. I got the west bedroom that faced out over the front yard. The room was familiar; it had been belonged to me since I was born.

The wooden floor, the light blue walls, the peaked ceiling, the yellowed lace curtains around the window - these were all a part of my childhood. The only changes Charlie had ever made were switching the crib for a bed and adding a desk as I grew.

The desk now held a secondhand computer, with the phone line for the modem stapled along the floor to the nearest phone jack. This was a stipulation from my mother, so that we could stay in touch easily. The rocking chair from my baby days was still in the corner.

There was only one small bathroom at the top of the stairs, which I would have to share with Charlie. I was trying not to dwell too much on that fact.

One of the best things about Charlie is he doesn't hover. He left me alone to unpack and get settled, a feat that would have been altogether impossible for my mother. It was nice to be alone, not to have to smile and look pleased; a relief to stare dejectedly out the window at the sheeting rain and let just a few tears escape. I wasn't in the mood to go on a real crying jag. I would save that for bedtime, when I would have to think about the coming morning.

Forks High School had a frightening total of only three hundred and fifty-seven - now fifty-eight - students; there were more than seven hundred people in my junior class alone back home. All of the kids here had grown up together - their grandparents had been toddlers together.

I would be the new girl from the big city, a curiosity, a freak.

Maybe, if I looked like a girl from Phoenix should, I could work this to my advantage. But physically, I'd never fit in anywhere. Ishouldbe tan, sporty, blond - a volleyball player, or a cheerleader, perhaps - all the things that go with living in the valley of the sun.

Instead, I was ivory-skinned, without even the excuse of blue eyes or red hair, despite the constant sunshine. I had always been slender, but soft somehow, obviously not an athlete; I didn't have the necessary hand-eye coordination to play sports without humiliating myself - and harming both myself and anyone else who stood too close.

When I finished putting my clothes in the old pine dresser, I took my bag of bathroom necessities and went to the communal bathroom to clean myself up after the day of travel. I looked at my face in the mirror as I brushed through my tangled, damp hair. Maybe it was the light, but already I looked sallower, unhealthy. My skin could be pretty - it was very clear, almost translucent-looking - but it all depended on color. I had no color here.

Facing my pallid reflection in the mirror, I was forced to admit that I was lying to myself. It wasn't just physically that I'd never fit in. And if I couldn't find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here?

I didn't relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn't relate well to people, period. Even my mother, who I was closer to than anyone else on the planet, was never in harmony with me, never on exactly the same page.

Sometimes I wondered if I was seeing the same things through my eyes that the rest of the world was seeing through theirs. Maybe there was a glitch in my brain. But the cause didn't matter. All that mattered was the effect. And tomorrow would be just the beginning.


	2. First Sight

[Naruto]

I couldn't sleep even through the rain storm that would drawn me into a hypnotic sleep state. Even that didn't work. This wasn't a good sign. It was never a good sign. My heart was beating fast and I needed to hunt. This feeling wasn't new or common but a rare chance. So rare that it take someone get strike ten times by lighting on a blue moon and winning the Million Dollar Lottery. Yeah, rare as it drew the the most dangeous parts of me to the surface.

I could feel the very deadly posion that I call blood course through my veins. I slowly got out of bed. I grabbed things for a nice shower to calm myself down. I wish sometimes I was only human instead of a hybrid that thristed for more than just human blood and to devour their very soul.

[Bella]

Breakfast with Charlie was a quiet event. He wished me good luck at school. I thanked him, knowing his hope was wasted. Good luck tended to avoid me.

Charlie left first, off to the police station that was his wife and family. After he left, I sat at the old square oak table in one of the three unmatching chairs and examined his small kitchen, with its dark paneled walls, bright yellow cabinets, and white linoleum floor. Nothing was changed. My mother had painted the cabinets eighteen years ago in an attempt to bring some sunshine into the house.

Over the small fireplace in the adjoining handkerchief-sized family room was a row of pictures. First a wedding picture of Charlie and my mom in Las Vegas, then one of the three of us in the hospital after I was born, taken by a helpful nurse, followed by the procession of my school pictures up to last year's. Those were embarrassing to look at - I would have to see what I could do to get Charlie to put them somewhere else, at least while I was living here.

It was impossible, being in this house, not to realize that Charlie had never gotten over my mom. It made me uncomfortable.

I didn't want to be too early to school, but I couldn't stay in the house anymore. I donned my jacket - which had the feel of a biohazard suit - and headed out into the rain.

It was just drizzling still, not enough to soak me through immediately as I reached for the house key that was always hidden under the eaves by the door, and locked up.

The sloshing of my new waterproof boots was unnerving. I missed the normal crunch of gravel as I walked. I couldn't pause and admire my truck again as I wanted; I was in a hurry to get out of the misty wet that swirled around my head and clung to my hair under my hood.

Inside the truck, it was nice and dry. Either Billy or Charlie had obviously cleaned it up, but the tan upholstered seats still smelled faintly of tobacco, gasoline, and peppermint. The engine started quickly, to my relief, but loudly, roaring to life and then idling at top volume. Well, a truck this old was bound to have a flaw. The antique radio worked, a plus that I hadn't expected.

Finding the school wasn't difficult, though I'd never been there before. The school was, like most other things, just off the highway. It was not obvious that it was a school; only the sign, which declared it to be the Forks High School, made me stop. It looked like a collection of matching houses, built with maroon-colored bricks. There were so many trees and shrubs I couldn't see its size at first. Where was the feel of the institution? I wondered nostalgically. Where were the chain-link fences, the metal detectors?

I parked in front of the first building, which had a small sign over the door reading front office. No one else was parked there, so I was sure it was off limits, but I decided I would get directions inside instead of circling around in the rain like an idiot. I stepped unwillingly out of the toasty truck cab and walked down a little stone path lined with dark hedges. I took a deep breath before opening the door.

Inside, it was brightly lit, and warmer than I'd hoped. The office was small; a little waiting area with padded folding chairs, orange-flecked commercial carpet, notices and awards cluttering the walls, a big clock ticking loudly. Plants grew everywhere in large plastic pots, as if there wasn't enough greenery outside.

The room was cut in half by a long counter, cluttered with wire baskets full of papers and brightly colored flyers taped to its front. There were three desks behind the counter, one of which was manned by a large, red-haired woman wearing glasses. She was wearing a purple t-shirt, which immediately made me feel overdressed.

The red-haired woman looked up. "Can I help you?"

"I'm Isabella Swan," I informed her, and saw the immediate awareness light her eyes. I was expected, a topic of gossip no doubt. Daughter of the Chief's flighty ex-wife, come home at last.

"Of course," she said. She dug through a precariously stacked pile of documents on her desk till she found the ones she was looking for. "I have your schedule right here, and a map of the school." She brought several sheets to the counter to show roe.

She went through my classes for me, highlighting the best route to each on the map, and gave me a slip to have each teacher sign, which I was to bring back at the end of the day. She smiled at me and hoped, like Charlie, that I would like it here in Forks. I smiled back as convincingly as I could.

When I went back out to my truck, other students were starting to arrive. I drove around the school, following the line of traffic. I was glad to see that most of the cars were older like mine, nothing flashy. At home I'd lived in one of the few lower-income neighborhoods that were included in the Paradise Valley District. It was a com. aon thing to see a new Mercedes or Porsche in the student lot. The nicest car here was a shiny black and red Veron, and it stood out.

Still, I cut the engine as soon as I was in a spot, so that the thunderous volume wouldn't draw attention to me.

I looked at the map in the truck, trying to memorize it now; hopefully I wouldn't have to walk around with it stuck in front of my nose all day. I stuffed everything in my bag, slung the strap over my shoulder, and sucked in a huge breath. I can do this, I lied to myself feebly. No one was going to bite me.

I finally exhaled and stepped out of the truck.

I kept my face pulled back into my hood as I walked to the sidewalk, crowded with teenagers. My plain black jacket didn't stand out, I noticed with relief.

Once I got around the cafeteria, building three was easy to spot. A large black "3" was painted on a white square on the east corner.

I felt my breathing gradually creeping toward hyperventilation as I approached the door. I tried holding my breath as I followed two unisex raincoats through the door.

The classroom was small. The people in front of me stopped just inside the door to hang up their coats on a long row of hooks. I copied them. They were two girls, one a porcelain-colored blonde, the other also pale, with light brown hair. At least my skin wouldn't be a standout here.

I took the slip up to the teacher, a tall, balding man whose desk had a nameplate identifying him as Mr. Mason. He gawked at me when he saw my name - not an encouraging response - and of course I flushed tomato red. But at least he sent me to an empty desk at the back without introducing me to the class. It was harder for my new classmates to stare at me in the back, but somehow, they managed. I kept my eyes down on the reading list the teacher had given me. It was fairly basic: Bronte, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Faulkner. I'd already read everything. That was comforting… and boring. I wondered if my mom would send me my folder of old essays, or if she would think that was cheating. I went through different arguments with her in my head while the teacher droned on.

When the bell rang, a nasal buzzing sound, a gangly boy with skin problems and hair black as an oil slick leaned across the aisle to talk to me. "You're Isabella Swan, aren't you?" He looked like the overly helpful, chess club type. "Bella," I corrected. Everyone within a three-seat radius turned to look at me. "Where's your next class?" he asked. I had to check in my bag. "Um, Government, with Jefferson, in building six."

There was nowhere to look without meeting curious eyes.

"I'm headed toward building four, I could show you the way…" Definitely over-helpful. "I'm Eric," he added. I smiled tentatively. "Thanks." We got our jackets and headed out into the rain, which had picked up. I could have sworn several people behind us were walking close enough to eavesdrop. I hoped I wasn't getting paranoid.

"So, this is a lot different than Phoenix, huh?" he asked.

"Very."

"It doesn't rain much there, does it?"

"Three or four times a year."

"Wow, what must that be like?" he wondered.

"Sunny," I told him.

"You don't look very tan."

"My mother is part albino."

He studied my face apprehensively, and I sighed. It looked like clouds and a sense of humor didn't mix. A few months of this and I'd forget how to use sarcasm. We walked back around the cafeteria, to the south buildings by the gym. Eric walked me right to the door, though it was clearly marked. "Well, good luck," he said as I touched the handle. "Maybe we'll have some other classes together." He sounded hopeful. I smiled at him vaguely and went inside.

The rest of the morning passed in about the same fashion. My Trigonometry teacher, Mr. Varner, who I would have hated anyway just because of the subject he taught, was the only one who made me stand in front of the class and introduce myself. I stammered, blushed, and tripped over my own boots on the way to my seat.

After two classes, I started to recognize several of the faces in each class. There was always someone braver than the others who would introduce themselves and ask me questions about how I was liking Forks. I tried to be diplomatic, but mostly I just lied a lot.

At least I never needed the map.

One girl sat next to me in both Trig and Spanish, and she walked with me to the cafeteria for lunch. She was tiny, several inches shorter than my five feet four inches, but her wildly curly dark hair made up a lot of the difference between our heights. I couldn't remember her name, so I smiled and nodded as she prattled about teachers and classes. I didn't try to keep up.

We sat at the end of a full table with several of her friends, who she introduced to me. I forgot all their names as soon as she spoke them. They seemed impressed by her bravery in speaking to me. The boy from English, Eric, waved at me from across the room. It was there, sitting in the lunchroom, trying to make conversation with seven curious strangers, that I first saw them.

They were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, as far away from where I sat as possible in the long room.

There were eight of them. Two boys and six girls. They weren't talking, and weren't eating. They weren't gawking at me, unlike most of the other students, so it was safe to stare at them without fear of meeting an excessively interested pair of eyes. But it was none of these things that caught, and held, my attention.

They didn't look anything alike. One boy was big - muscled like a serious weight lifter, with dark, curly hair. The other boy was breath taking with wild spikey blond hair, slim yet muscled and finally three whisker marks on each cheek.

The girls were opposites. The tall one was statuesque. She had a beautiful figure, the kind you saw on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, the kind that made every girl around her take a hit on her self-esteem just by being in the same room. Her hair was golden, gently waving to the middle of her back. The short girl was pixie like, with small features but still beautiful. Her hair was a deep black, cropped short and pointing in every direction. Another was taller, leaner, but still lithe, and honey blond. The third, who had long wavy hair the color of bronze, with a beautiful figure that matched her blonde friend but being more fit and athletic. The last two were just breath taking beautiful more so than the first girl. Both were just a few inches shorter than the said girl, with one having long dark hair and the other red.

And yet, they were all exactly alike. Every one of them was chalky pale except the blonde who was a little less pale, the palest of all the students living in this sunless town. They all (except for the blonde boy the two girls) had very dark eyes despite the range in hair tones. They also had dark shadows under their eyes purplish, bruise-like shadows, as if they were all suffering from a sleepless night (again except for the blonde boy and the two girls), or almost done recovering from a broken nose. Though their noses, and all their features, were straight, perfect, and angular.

But all this is not why I couldn't look away. I stared because their faces, so different, so similar, were all devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful. They were faces you never expected to see except perhaps on the airbrushed pages of a fashion magazine. Or painted by an old master as the face of an angel. It was hard to decide who was the most beautiful.

They were all looking away - away from each other, away from the other students, away from anything in particular as far as I could tell. As I watched, the small girl rose with her tray - unopened soda, unbitten apple - and walked away with a quick, graceful lope that belonged on a runway. I watched, amazed at her lithe dancer's step, till she dumped her tray and glided through the back door, faster than I would have thought possible. My eyes darted back to the others, who sat unchanging.

"Who are they?" I asked the girl from my Spanish class, whose name I'd forgotten. As she looked up to see who I meant - though already knowing, probably, from my tone - suddenly she looked at her, the thinner one, the athletic one, the youngest, perhaps. She looked at my neighbor for just a fraction of a second, and then her dark eyes flickered to mine.

She looked away quickly, more quickly than I could, though in a flush of embarrassment I dropped my eyes at once. In that brief flash of a glance, her face held nothing of interest - it was as if she had called her name, and she'd looked up in involuntary response, already having decided not to answer.

My neighbor giggled in embarrassment, looking at the table like I did. "That's Edith and Emmett Cullen, Rosalie and Jessamine Hale, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze, Ilona Lycan (1) and Karin Corvin (2). The one who left was Alice Cullen; they all live together with Dr. Cullen and his wife." She said this under her breath.

I glanced sideways at the beautiful girl, who was looking at her tray picking a bagel to pieces with long, pale fingers. Her mouth was moving very quickly, her perfect lips barely opening. The other four still looked away, and yet I felt she was speaking quietly to them.

Strange, unpopular names, I thought. The kinds of names grandparents had. But maybe that was in vogue here - small town names? However Naruto and Karin sounded Japanese yet he looked nothing like any Japanese she had ever seen. I finally remembered that my neighbor was called Jessica, a perfectly common name. There were two girls named Jessica in my History class back home. "They are… very nice-looking." I struggled with the conspicuous understatement.

"Yes!" Jessica agreed with another giggle. "They're all together though - Emmett and Rosalie, and I think that Naruto is with the other girls, I mean it hasn't been proved but still. And they live together."

Her voice held all the shock and condemnation of the small town, I thought critically. But, if I was being honest, I had to admit that even in Phoenix, it would cause gossip.

"Which ones are the Cullens?" I asked. "They don't look related, and I think I know which one is Naruto, Ilona and Karin."

"Oh, they're not. Dr. Cullen is really young, in his twenties or early thirties. They're all adopted. The Hales are sisters, twins - the blondes - and they're foster children."

"They look a little old for foster children."

"They are now, Jessamine and Rosalie are eighteen, but they've been with Mrs. Cullen since they were eight. She's their aunt or something like that."

"That's really kind of nice - for them to take care of all those kids like that, when they're so young and everything."

"I guess so," Jessica admitted reluctantly, and I got the impression that she didn't like the doctor and his wife for some reason.

With the glances she was throwing at their adopted children, I would presume the reason was jealousy. "I think Mrs. Cullen can't have kids though," she added, as if that lessened their kindness.

"What about Naruto, Ilona and Karin why do they live with them?" I asked.

"Apparently he and Karin are the son and daughter of Mr. Cullen's big brother whom died in some accident Ilona is their fourth cousin." answered Jessica.

Throughout all this conversation, my eyes flickered again and again to the table where the strange family sat. They continued to look at the walls and not eat.

"Have they always lived in Forks?" I asked. Surely I would have noticed them on one of my summers here.

"No," she said in a voice that implied it should be obvious, even to a new arrival like me. "The Cullens just moved down two years ago from somewhere in Alaska as for the other three they been living here for the past three years."

I felt a surge or pity, and relief. Pity because, as beautiful as they were, they were outsiders, clearly not accepted. Relief that I wasn't the only newcomer here, and certainly not the most interesting by any standard.

As I examined them, the youngest, one of the Cullens, looked up and met my gaze, this time with evident curiosity in her expression. As I looked swiftly away, it seemed to me that her glance held some kind of unmet expectation.

"Which one is the girl with the reddish brown hair?" I asked. I peeked at her from the corner of my eye, and she was still staring at me, but not gawking like the other students had today - she had a slightly frustrated expression. I looked down again.

"That's Edith she's gorgeous, of course, but apparently she doesn't date. Apparently none of the guys here are good enough for her," said Mike.

"And what about Naruto." I asked.

Jessica answered, "Apparently just like Edith he doesn't date. Apparently none of the girls here are good looking enough for him, all he just says he is not interested."

She sniffed, a clear case of sour grapes. I wondered when he'd turned her down, or how many times.

I bit my lip to hide my smile. Then I glanced at her again. Her face was turned away, but I thought her cheek appeared lifted, as Naruto's whose nose twitched as if he were smelling something in the air and turns towards me like a predator looking at its prey. He slowly turned away with a smile that left cold shivers going down my back.

After a few more minutes, the eight of them left the table together. They all were noticeably graceful - even the big, brawny one. It was unsettling to watch. The one named Edith didn't look at me again.

I sat at the table with Jessica and her friends longer than I would have if I'd been sitting alone. I was anxious not to be late for class on my first day. Once of my new acquaintances, who considerately reminded me that her name was Angela, had Biology II with me the next hour. We walked to class together in silence. She was shy, too.

When we entered the classroom, Angela went to sit at a black-topped lab table exactly like the ones I was used to. She already had a neighbor. In fact, all the tables were filled but one. Next to the center aisle, I recognized Edith Cullen by her unusual metallic hair, sitting next to that single open seat.

As I walked down the aisle to do my required intro for the teacher and get my slip signed, I was watching her, trying to make it covert. Just as I passed, she suddenly went rigid in her seat. Her face jerked up toward mine so fast it surprised me, staring with the strangest expression—it was more than angry, it was furious, hostile.

I looked away, stunned, going red again. I stumbled over a book in the walkway and had to catch myself on the edge of a table. The girl sitting there giggled. I'd been right about the eyes. They were black—coal black.

Mr. Banner signed my slip and handed me a book with no nonsense about introductions and no mention of my full name. I could tell we were going to get along. Of course, he had no choice but to send me to the one open seat in the middle of the room. I kept my eyes down as I went to sit by her, confused and awkward, wondering what I could have done to earn the antagonistic glare she'd given me.

I didn't look up as I set my book on the table and took my seat, but I saw her posture change from the corner of my eye. She was leaning away from me, sitting on the extreme edge of her chair and averting her face like she smelled something bad.

Inconspicuously, I sniffed my hair. It smelled like strawberries, the scent of my favorite shampoo. It seemed an innocent enough odor. I let my hair fall over my right shoulder, making a dark curtain between us, and tried to pay attention to the teacher.

Unfortunately the lecture was on cellular anatomy, something I'd already studied. I took notes carefully anyway, always looking down.

I couldn't stop myself from shooting the occasional glance at the strange girl next to me. Throughout the entire class, she never relaxed her stiff position on the edge of her chair, sitting as far from me as possible, with her hair hiding most of her face.

Her hand was clenched into a fist on top of her left thigh, tendons standing out under her pale skin. This, too, she never relaxed. She had the sleeves of her white henley pushed up to her elbows, and her forearm flexed with surprisingly hard muscle beneath her pale skin. I couldn't help but notice how perfect that skin was. Not one freckle, not one scar. The class seemed to drag on longer than the rest. Was it because the day was finally ending, or because I was waiting for her tight fist to loosen? It never did; she continued to sit so still it looked like she wasn't even breathing. What was wrong with her? Was this how she usually acted? I questioned my quick judgment on Jessica's sour grapes at lunch today. Maybe she wasn't just resentful.

This couldn't have anything to do with me. It couldn't have anything to do with me. She didn't know me.

I peeked up at her one more time, and regretted it. She was glaring down at me again, her black eyes full of revulsion. As I flinched away from her, shrinking against my chair, the phrase if looks could kill suddenly ran through my mind.

At that moment, the bell rang loudly, making me jump, and Edythe Cullen was out of her seat. She moved like a dancer, every perfect line of her slim body in harmony with all the others, her back to me, and she was out the door before anyone else was out of their seat. I sat frozen in my seat, staring blankly after her. She was so harsh. I began gathering up my things slowly, trying to block out the confusion and guilt that filled me. Why should I feel guilty? I hadn't done anything wrong. How could I have? I hadn't actually even met her.

"Aren't you Isabella Swan?" a male voice asked. I looked up to see a cute, baby-faced boy, his paleblond hair carefully gelled into orderly spikes, smiling at me in a friendly way. He obviously didn't think I smelled bad.

"Bella," I corrected him, with a smile.

"I'm Mike."

"Hi, Mike."

"Do you need any help finding your next class?"

"I'm headed to the gym, actually. I think I can find it."

"That's my next class, too." He seemed thrilled, though it wasn't that big of a coincidence in a school this small.

We walked to class together; he was a chatterer—he supplied most of the conversation, which made it easy for me. He'd lived in California till he was ten, so he knew how I felt about the sun. It turned out he was in my English class also. He was the nicest person I'd met today.

But as we were entering the gym, he asked, "So, did you stab Edythe Cullen with a pencil or what? I've never seen her act like that." I winced. I guess I wasn't the only one who had noticed. And, apparently, that wasn't Edythe Cullen's usual behavior.

I decided to play dumb. "Was that the girl I sat next to in Biology?"

"Yes," he said. "She looked like she was in pain or something."

"I don't know," I responded. "I never spoke to her."

"She's a weird girl." Mike lingered by me instead of heading to the dressing room. "If I were lucky enough to sit by you, I would have talked to you."

I smiled at him before walking through the girls' locker room door. He was friendly and clearly admiring. But it wasn't enough to ease my irritation.

The Gym teacher, Coach Clapp, found me a uniform but didn't make me dress down for today's class. At home, only two years of P.E. were required. Here, P.E. was mandatory all four years. Forks was literally my personal hell on Earth.

I watched four volleyball games running simultaneously. Remembering how many injuries I had sustained—and inflicted—playing volleyball, I felt faintly nauseated. The final bell rang at last. I walked slowly to the office to return my paperwork. The rain had drifted away, but the wind was strong, and colder. I wrapped my arms around myself. When I walked into the warm office, I almost turned around and walked back out. Edward Cullen stood at the desk in front of me. I recognized again that tousled bronze hair. She didn't appear to notice the sound of my entrance. I stood pressed against the back wall, waiting for the receptionist to be free. She was arguing with her in a low, attractive voice. I quickly picked up the gist of the argument.

Se was trying to trade from sixth-hour Biology to another time—any other time.

I just couldn't believe that this was about me. It had to be something else, something that happened before I entered the Biology room. The look on her face must have been about another aggravation entirely. It was impossible that this stranger could take such a sudden, intense dislike to me. The door opened again, and the cold wind suddenly gusted through the room, rustling the papers on the desk, swirling my hair around my face. The girl who came in merely stepped to the desk, placed a note in the wire basket, and walked out again. But Edithe Cullen's back stiffened, and she turned slowly to glare at me—her face was absurdly handsome—with piercing, hate-filled eyes. For an instant, I felt a thrill of genuine fear, raising the hair on my arms. The look only lasted a second, but it chilled me more than the freezing wind. She turned back to the receptionist.

"Never mind, then," she said hastily in a voice like velvet. "I can see that it's impossible. Thank you so much for your help." And she turned on her heel without another look at me, and disappeared out the door. I went meekly to the desk, my face white for once instead of red, and handed her the signed slip.

"How did your first day go, dear?" the receptionist asked maternally.

"Fine," I lied, my voice weak. She didn't look convinced. When I got to the truck, it was almost the last car in the lot. It seemed like a haven, already the closest thing to home I had in this damp green hole. I sat inside for a while, just staring out the windshield blankly. But soon I was cold enough to need the heater, so I turned the key and the engine roared to life. I headed back to Charlie's house, fighting tears the whole way there.


	3. Open Book

[Bella]

The next day was better...and worse.

It was better because it wasn't raining yet, though the clouds were dense and black. It was easier because I knew better what to expect of the day. Mike came to sit by me in English, and walked me to my next class, with Chess Club Eric glaring at him all the while; that was flattering. People didn't look at me quite as much as they had yesterday. I sat with a big group at lunch that included Mike, Eric, Jessica, and several other people whose names and faces I now remembered. I began to feel like I was treading water, instead of drowning in it.

It was worse because I was tired; I still couldn't sleep with the wind echoing around the house. It was worse because Mr. Varner called on me in Trig when my hand wasn't raised and I had the wrong answer. It was miserable because I had to play volleyball, and the one time I didn't cringe out of the way of the ball, I hit my teammate in the head with it. And it was worse because Edithe Cullen and Naruto wasn't in school at all.

[Naruto]

I was in New York on top of a belfry of a Church with three of my associates. Two vampires and one werewolf.

The male vampire was Kraven. A well-built vampire like Emmett, only Kraven is two inches shorter, and having a smaller chest and biceps. He had piercing blue eyes and dark brown hair. He wore a button down shirt, a black coat, and long black pants.

The female vampire was Cecilia whom was a beautiful young vampire with a athletic hourglass figure. She had the same blue eyes as the male and had shoulder length auburn hair. She wore a black leather bodysuit with a corset, a long duster coat, and heavy, high-heeled, under-knee lengthcombat boots.

The last one was Lucian the leader, the alpha to the Lycans and my adopted brother.

"So, let me get this straight, you want me to go back to Budapest and challenge Viktor?" I asked trying to not to kill the man I consider family.

"Naruto, Viktor has already brought humans into this war what to say he hasn't brought more species into this bloody fight." Lucian said.

"Lucian, as my brother I'm willing not to kill you as that would lead to more bloodshed in this war that I'm willing not to face but your making it quite hard for me to say 'fuck you' and walk off." I growled.

"Than can you a least watch over Eve and Ilona a little longer?" Lucian asked holding up his hands.

"You better give me a reason I shouldn't kill you right now." I snarled in face.

"Selena couldn't risk asking it herself fearing of being followed." Kraven said.

"Come on that's the best excuse you have? She'd kill anyone that dared to that." I said with anger.

"Brother please think this over, Sonja and Selena don't want Eve hurt and both Ilona and you can't keep both of them safe. from this kind of threat." Lucian said.

I grabbed Lucian by his throat and slammed him down on the ground and held him there. "You better start talking Lucian before say fuck this war and kill you."

Kraven spoke up, "There's been talk about Volturi joining the war."

"And its your last chance-"

"No!" I yelled throwing Lucian into wall of the belfry. "I will not take the throne."

"One way or another this war will be your fight." Lucian said getting up. "As king or not."

"Get out of my sight before I kill you all." I growled as fire filled my hands.

"Eve and Ilona are in trouble!" Cecilia quickly shouted.

I threw a fire ball at the vampire and missing her by several inches. "Start talking."

"After Michael's death things changed and Selene is out for blood while Sonja is trying to hide from a tracker." Cecilia said.

I slammed my fist into the wall. "Why didn't you tell me this first."

"You didn't want to be bothered with the war and keeping the girls safe." Cecilia said.

"I'll watch the girls while you deal with tracker problem." I said as held back some of my anger.

"Are you sure?" Lucian said.

I nodded, "With seven vampires plus me that's more than enough to make a werewolf or a vampire to back off."

"We're good right?" Lucian asked as I walked to the edge of belfry.

I turned towards him, "Ask me that after my niece and goddaughter's threat is taken care of and were are they?"

"Somewhere in Scottland," Lucian said looking upset.

"Your still family, Lucian but I wish you told me of this threat, they don't don't need to be brought into the war." I said before jumping out of the belfry as unfolded my wings and flew off leaving my brother and two vampires behind.

* * *

[Bella]

Every day for the rest of the week, I watched anxiously until the rest of the Cullens entered the cafeteria without Naruto and Edythe. Then I could relax and join in the lunchtime conversation. Mostly it centered around a trip to the La Push Ocean Park in two weeks that Mike was putting together. I was invited, and I had agreed to go, more out of politeness than desire. Beaches should be hot and dry.

By Friday I was perfectly comfortable entering my Biology class, no longer worried that Edythe would be there. For all I knew, she had dropped out of school with Naruto. I tried not to think about her, but I couldn't totally suppress the worry that I was responsible for both continued absence, ridiculous as it seemed. My first weekend in Forks passed without incident. Charlie, unused to spending time in the usually empty house, worked most of the weekend.

parking lot Monday morning. I didn't know all their names, but I waved back and smiled at everyone. I froze at the sight of the shiny black and red Veron that pulled up next to a shiny Volvo.

Stepping out of the driver side was Naruto whom walked around to the passenger's side door and open it. As Ilona got out of the car.

I watched the two walked off towards the one of buildings as I headed to English. I got to class with Mike taking his accustomed seat by my side.

The door open as Ilons walked her seat in the back of the class. I didn't say anything to Mike since Mr. Mason handed out a pop quiz on _Wuthering Heights_. I nearly got started when I felt some staring aat me. I looked around to see the new girl staring at me before looking down at her test.

I was the first one done or so I thought. Both Ilona and I walked to Mr. Mason's desk and dropped off our papers be heading back to our respective tables.

She didn't say word as did I since I didn't know what to say. Mike looked at me before going back to his quiz.

The second the bell rang Ilona hurried out of the room. It was clear that I was not liked by the Cullens at all.

* * *

[Naruto]

I walked out of class, the air was full of swirling bits of Snow. I could hear people shouting excitedly. I was pelted in back as Emment walked past me. I reached down and formed a ball of snow in my hand and threw it at him.

I saw Bella walked away towards the cafeteria once Mike through his snowball at Eric. I felt a hand on my shoulder and saw Alice looking at me and smiled.

We walked into the cafeteria as I saw Bella freeze as she saw Edythe as we past.a

We sat at our usual table as Ilona and I began to eat.

"I'm going to talk to her." Edythe said.

"You can't, you must not reveal us!" Rosalie hissed under her breath. "Naruto, tell her this is bad idea!"

I stopped eating and looked at her. "Rose, you told me it was a bad idea to have Ilona and Eve here."

"That's different their one of us! She's human." Rosalie said quietly.

"Rose, I got this if anything goes wrong I got us covered." I said taking a drink of my soda.

"Alice can you see if this a bad thing." Rose said.

"Sorry but I can't see anything how this goes." Alice said.

Rose got up and left with Emmett following behind her. Jessamine look at me. "Can you be sure you can hide our secret."

I sighed. "I can't promise that since the treaty I was forced into."

Jessamine looked at me. "But, I'll take all responsibility if things get hairy." I resured her.

"What treaty?" Ilona asked.

"Don't worry about it I got it covered." I said giving her a smile.

We stood up and walked out of the Cafeteria into the snow I watched Edythe head to her Biology Class. I could only hope I didn't have kill anyone after school.


End file.
